Energy Management

COST EFFECTIVE ALTERNATIVES TO BUILDING ENERGY MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

The revolution in the student accommodation sector over the last decade has provided practically every university town with developments that offer a real home from home experience for their occupants. Draughty halls of residence with wafer thin mattresses are now few and far between. With 2.8 students vying for each room, demand is high and providers are enticing freshers with comfortable, well-appointed accommodation that includes superfast broadband, private bathrooms, their own cooking facilities, gyms, pools and even cinema rooms. To make moving in even more attractive many offer all-inclusive packages that include utility bills.

Great news for the students who don’t need to worry, at the end of the month, whether they have sufficient funds for the gas, water and electric bill. But, for an energy manager trying to balance the books, giving free reign, to a building full of students with control over their own environmental temperature, can prove to be a headache!

There are building energy management systems that provide excellent features to manage the use of energy across these types of buildings, but these call for serious capital expenditure and can be disruptive to install. Often, they are too big for the job – the proverbial sledgehammer to crack a nut. At the other end of the scale are wall heaters with built in thermostatic controls. Most can be set and then locked, the intention being to restrict the length of time a higher temperature can be held, however, the average undergrad will soon work out or Google search, that holding the button for three seconds gives them full access to ‘set the controls for the heart of the sun!’

Occupying the middle ground are intelligent thermostatic controls that are programmed locally. Most commonly they are connected to electric panel heaters or fluid-filled radiators but they can also control ‘wet’ systems.

The benefit of a thermostat that isn’t part of the heater is that they monitor temperature more accurately and the combination of a no-control heater and the thermostat is more cost effective than an integrated heater/control. An added benefit is that if either part malfunctions, only the heater or the thermostat needs replacing, as opposed to an expensive integrated unit.

Thermostats such as the ecostat2 range from Prefect controls operate the 3-stage student profile – Setback, Boost and Frost modes. Setback mode keeps the room at a predetermined temperature often 18-20°C. If the occupant requires more heat, they simply press the ‘up’ button which activates Boost mode, this raises the temperature for a set period of time, commonly 22°C for 45 minutes. When the time has elapsed, the programme reverts to Setback temperature. If the button isn’t pressed again for a set period, often 12 hours, Frost mode engages which reduces energy input but maintains the room temperature at a level that avoids frost or damp, often 10°C.

The 3-stage profile ensures energy is only used when required.

The range of thermostats includes, units for corridors or communal areas that have no user controls; units with Boost/off user control; and PIR models, which when set to absence detection will cut short the Boost mode if the occupant leaves the room during operation. All models feature open-window detection.

Heaters can only operate when fitted with the patented EnergyLock key which is supplied with the thermostat, making the system fully Lot20 compliant. A dedicated handset is used to programme the thermostats with time and temperature details. When programming is complete each unit is locked, meaning adjustments can only be made by authorised personnel.

All responsible accommodation providers are painstakingly looking at how to achieve their net-zero targets. Reviewing the control of unnecessary energy use could be the remedy for that headache. prefectcontrols.com

ENERGY MANAGEMENT DO YOU NEED A CONSULTANT? Alex Hill, Managing Director – ZTP

An odd question for the Managing Director of a consultancy to pose, I’ll grant you that… But the answer isn’t as clear cut as we would like it to be.

A better question for you to first ask is “What am I trying to achieve?”. With over a thousand Third Party Intermediaries (TPIs) in the UK energy market, there is a consultancy offering to meet almost every budget and service requirement, which can vary drastically from organisation to organisation. However, regardless of whether you are a micro entity or a global corporation, almost all organisations have or will soon have similar core requirements and responsibilities regarding energy. Some of these are outlined below: • Purchasing Management - ensuring costs are reduced and budgets are protected while achieving any additional qualitative business requirements. • Financial Auditing and Reporting - ensuring budgets are set, accruals are accurate, and bills are validated prior to payment. • Consumption Monitoring, Reporting and Targeting - ensuring that the organisation can set, reach, and exceed consumption reduction targets. • Carbon and Legislative Reporting – ensuring that constantly moving and improving reporting requirements are met accurately, to aid the organisation and wider global community to combat climate change. • Data and Portfolio Management – ensuring that an accurate database of sites, meters, contracts, costs, consumption, and carbon data is maintained to enable all other functions to operate efficiently and accurately.

Whereas the above list is by no means exhaustive, it provides a baseline for discussion by enabling organisations to ask three important questions - Do I have the knowledge? Do I have the time? Do I have the tools to carry out these functions internally? It is also important to remember that these questions can be asked and answered independently for each of the functions listed, because engaging with a consultant is not an all or nothing decision.

As it is not a consultancy’s role to decide if an organisation needs their help, but the organisation itself who should have the power to make the decision, we have designed the below decision matrix to aid independent decision-making. The matrix is designed to identify strengths that would enable an organisation to manage their own energy affairs, and weaknesses that may require support from a third party. For the purpose of this article the matrix has been pre-filled with answers from an example organisation. To use the matrix yourself, simply answer between 1 (Does not have Knowledge/Time/Tools) and 10 (Has Knowledge/Time/Tools). Any function with a score of lower than 5 may require a consultant’s assistance, those higher than 5 may be managed internally.

In the scenario provided we can see an organisation that has strong knowledge in purchasing, consumption monitoring and portfolio management, but lacks the systems for purchasing and the time to effectively monitor usage. Given access to the correct tools for purchasing, the limited time available to apply to this function could in fact be enough to carry it out internally, if the tools save time on processing and analysis. The organisation is close to being self-sufficient in terms of energy monitoring but may benefit from consultancy support with planning and implementing change.

Unfortunately, the organisation does not have strong enough knowledge, available time, or adequate tools for financial or carbon reporting to accurately perform the functions internally. For these functions the organisation would benefit from appointing an external consultant.

The social, environmental, and financial cost of energy management within any organisation is of critical importance, especially given the current period of rapid change in reporting requirements, technological advancements and charging structures. This can lead to organisations opting to outsource all energy-related functions to an external team that are seemingly better placed to mitigate these risks as they have more knowledge, time and better tools. However, this may not always be the best approach, as we can see in the scenario. Sometimes a hybrid approach may yield the best results, with the organisation taking more ownership of the functions where they are stronger and augmenting their team with consultants in areas where they are weaker. The benefits of this approach lie not only in reduced consultancy costs for the organisation, but from having in-house hands-on personnel who know the business, engaged in its energy management journey. Do you need a consultant? Possibly…but first consider your internal strengths and build from there. www.ztpuk.com